The disclosure pertains generally to retention devices for providing locational stability, restraint, and strain-relief to elongate objects such as tubing, optical fibers, wires, cables, buffer tubes and the like. The preferred embodiments will be described in connection with such retention devices for optical fibers, such as, for example, splice trays. Splice tray mechanisms can be used to route and store optical fibers therein. However, the application is not limited to use with optical fibers and, instead, finds application with any elongate tubular objects such as electrical wires, tubes, pipes, and the like. “Fibers” or “optical fibers” will be used hereinafter to refer to all of these.
Optical fibers are present in trunk and feeder lines and can be in the form of single or multiple strands. There is often a need to restrain and/or to channel such optical fiber strands to prevent their damage and to provide a solid base for termination, branching or connection. When there is a termination or a branch of these fibers, such as at a feeder to a group of subscribers or at the end of a trunk, it is desirable to locate the fibers at a relatively fixed position to facilitate their connection. Further, they should be located, routed, stored, and retained positively so that they can be identified easily and not kink or break. In conjunction with these restraints, it is further desirable to strain relieve the fibers so that the mechanical flexions on another portion of the fiber strand do not break a termination.
Many techniques, i.e., tie wraps, for optical fiber restraint and strain-relief have been used but most are time consuming, cumbersome, and can potentially cause damage to the fiber optics. In one example, fiber optics can have a buffer tube or cover surrounding the fiber optic which are then bundled and wrapped with a tie wrap and then secured to a splice tray. In some installations, another step is involved whereby the cover is first wrapped with felt prior to bundling and securing with the tie wrap. Overall, therefore, effective restraints for optical fibers should be relatively strong, easy to install, modular, and inexpensive.